This 1982 study is by David J Hufford, and its complete title
is The
Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural
Assault Traditions, from the University of Pennsylvania Press.
It’s a fascinating study of the tradition he calls “the Old
Hag,” which is a specific series of occurrences that come to some people. The group of most-common symptoms or
descriptors include
- lying flat on your back
- feeling awake and aware of your surroundings
- inability to move
- an awareness of the presence of another
- a numinous impression of the Other; this is NOT a common visit from a physical friend or pet or what-have-you
- a sensation of pressure on the body, making it feel difficult to breathe
Oftentimes the spell ends when the experiencer feels
themselves finally able to move -- even if only a finger, or shift their head
slightly. Breaking the paralysis breaks
the experience.
Hufford discovered that this pattern is widespread and has
often happened to people who have no knowledge of the folkloric description of
this event. Often, an experiencer would
be afraid to tell another in fear of being thought crazy. Many times after a lecture on the topic (or a
media article or a radio interview) Hufford would meet more people who would
report their own “encounters.” Many
times the full stories of the experience would mention other common elements
that had not been mentioned in his talks or the present discussion.
Other experiencers told about their spell without knowing
anything about the widespread occurrence of similar happenings.
The experience happens during (or around) sleep, so is it
just “a nightmare,” without objective confirmation?
The origin of the word nightmare is [Middle
English, a female demon that afflicts sleeping people : night,
night; see night + mare, goblin (from Old
English; see mer-
in Indo-European roots).] And the
Old Hag experience is often dismissed by the uninformed as “only a nightmare.”
The Old Hag is not a nightmare, nor an instance of Sleep
Paralysis, although SP is often a feature of the entire Old Hag event. Experiencers are not bad people and they are
not crazy. The impulsive action of dismissing
the experience as being reported only by “the superstitious” or by “the
mentally weak” shows only that the scoffer
is small-minded and petty.
The source of the term itself comes from Hufford’s own first
encounters with the experience, when he was a teacher in Newfoundland. The term refers to the folkloric idea or a
witch “riding” an unwilling person. The
term “hag-ridden” when applied to somebody who seems all worn-out derives
specifically from this cultural meme.
There are plenty of artistic works which reference the Old
Hag. Most of the time the occurrence is
not called that, but it “fits the bill” to a greater or lesser extent. Some of these artistic expressions of the Hag
are
- de Maupassant’s story “The Horla”
- the book The Entity
- the film of the same name
- the oft-quoted passage that begins Varney the Vampire: She tries to scream again but a choking sensation comes over her, and she cannot. It is too dreadful -- she tries to move -- each limb seems weighted down by tons of lead -- she can but in a hoarse faint whisper cry …. And yet now she could not scream -- she could not move
- Dracula’s visit to Mina Harker’s bedroom when she is forced to drink his blood
- the unnamed thing in “What Was It? A Mystery” by Fitz-James O’Brien
To his credit, Hufford also refers to John Keel’s
investigations involving ultra-terrestrials (often aligned with UFOs), and
specifically to Keel’s book Strange Creatures from Time and Space
(Fawcett, 1970) which has a chapter on
these topics called “The Bedroom Invaders.”
The case studies (more than thirty) also show some
connections between the Hag experience and haunting or poltergeist
experiences. These supernatural
trappings pull the Old Hag experiences out of the “odd psychological brain
misfire” realm and into the supernatural.
Some of these experiences also involve second parties who saw
the respondent during or after the encounter.
At times the experiencer’s eyes REALLY WERE OPEN. They REALLY WERE trying to move (appearing to
tremble with the effort but not actually moving).
This is a fascinating topic with ties to actual
psychological realms such as Sleep Paralysis and Sleep Research. The reported supernatural areas that are also
overlapped show that the Enemy of Mankind (that ol’ Debbil) may also be trying
to affect people.
WHAT IS IT that is holding the respondents immobile? One case study describes a gelatinous,
amorphous thing. Another of Hufford’s
interviewees described feeling as if he were being held down by “hundreds of
tiny arms.” A source quoted on page 232
says, “The thing feels like warm
raw meat, and when punched, has the elastic quality or rubber…”
It’s not a phenomenon that is solely common to “Western
Civilization.” In the chapter “The Old
Hag and Culture” Hufford also quotes a study that included sixteen Eskimo
reports. The experience has a special
name in two of the Eskimo languages!
There are also occurrences in Samoa and the Philippines.
Say your prayers and keep reading! This is a well-written (though scholarly)
look at a disturbing phenomenon
experienced for centuries. Well done!
